Fic: All That I want (Hiruma Youichi, G)
Title: All That I Want
Rating: G
Characters: Hiruma-centric, with a short Hiruma/Mamori cameo at the end.
Word Count: 1,111
Warnings: Christmas Bowl spoilers. DON'T READ IT YET, JESS!
Summary: Christmas cakes. Poker. A few memories, Yuuya, six Christmases, a lack of color, a picture with a dozen signatures, and a sprig of mistletoe.
Disclaimer: The characters herein belongs to Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata, and Shueisha and are used because I am addicted to Riichiro Inagaki's Eyeshield 21 universe and characters. No one is profiting from anything written in this story. I am not Riichiro Inagaki, and I am not Yusuke Murata.
Author's Notes: I don't know. It just sort of attacked my head. Besides, I had to write *something* Christmassy.
The first Christmas Hiruma Youichi could remember consisted of a distinctive lack of color.
Just in his home, however. The surrounding homes-- everything looked so festive and merry, and Youichi wondered whether he was cursed to live a drab life without garlands ands colors and trees and lights and decorations.
It seemed unfair to the little boy, four years old at the time, that all of the other kids-- who called him weird-- got all the seasonal cheer in the world, when all he got was silence.
No lights, no sounds, no cheer. Not even the faintest hint of merriment and music-- what was a boy like him to think?
One day he heard it-- only good kids get presents and fun over Christmas time. Didn't you know that? The others all get coal as a punishment.
It was the first time Youichi realized that it had to be true.
He was a bad kid, and he was never going to have a good Christmas, and this was simply the way his life was going to be.
Bad kids get coal.
When, that year, on Christmas Eve, Youichi got no gifts at all, he realized that maybe the other kids had been right all along.
Maybe he was a bad kid.
Maybe he'd finally found a reason for why his parents didn't love him.
~*~
Hiruma Youichi, age seven.
It was then that he learned to hate Christmas time.
While other people were having fun, he was in his room, staring out the window at the snow-decked surroundings.
No one cared about the lonely little boy who wished he could play, too. Who just for once wanted someone to not make fun of his teeth or his ears or how skinny and lame he was. Wanted his parents to at least pretend that they cared.
Instead, all Youichi remembered about Christmas that year was that, on the morning of the 25th of December, when other families were eating their Christmas cakes together, mom wasn't there anymore, and his father muttered something unintelligible that he knew he wasn't supposed to ask about.
She didn't come back ever again, and Youichi wondered whether this was the literal version of getting coal in one's stocking.
~*~
Father-- the man he'd now come to call simply Yuuya-- never bought Christmas cakes again after that, and Youichi realized that he missed them. He didn't think he would-- sweets had never been his favorite, but...
It had been a bit of holiday cheer that even he'd gotten.
Up 'till now.
It was then, at age 9, that Youichi learned to hate sweet things, resenting them and the cheer they brought everyone else a little bit more every time he looked out the window at the lights.
Christmas cakes that weren't sold by Christmas morning were considered old and out of date by everyone. Yuuya had explained the previous year that unmarried women over the age of twenty-five were said to be "unsold Christmas cakes."
There was a certain amount of guilt that stung in his chest every time he walked by a Christmas cake shop, as if he was solely responsible for another unsold woman by not buying a cake.
Even if he was starting to be convinced that no woman could ever want him. He just wasn't the sort of person that anyone could want. Not a mother, not a father, no friends, and definitely no girls.
~*~
Youichi remembered as much about his 10th Christmas as the American soldiers at the air base. He wanted to forget the Holiday so much as existed as much as they did.
They couldn't be with their families, and Youichi didn't have a family to be with.
And as much as December 24th didn't stand out to him as a special day at all that year, he had fun. Even if it was just playing poker and shelling in cash. Because in the end, even if he hadn't realized it, he was doing good-- making them forget they had people back home to miss.
~*~
The next few Christmases passed in much the same way, the only thing standing out about the holiday season being that precious hole in the fence and the American Christmas music he heard every time he came around, everything outside covered in white.
He didn't mind.
~*~
When he turned fifteen, suddenly Christmas found a positive connotation for him.
Not only had he found friends, but they were all working towards the same goal, together. The holiday didn't matter anymore.
All that mattered now was the Christmas Bowl.
It was that year that he'd gotten sick of bicycling by that damn Christmas Cake Shop every time he rode home after school, and chose to take up house in the hotel on a permanent basis.
~*~
It wasn't until they won the Christmas Bowl that Youichi truly felt like he'd gotten a gift over the holiday he hated so much and had always wanted nothing more than to forget.
It was the same year that he found a small parcel, wrapped neatly in the same way only one person he knew was capable of, blue, shiny wrapping paper with a pretty silver bow on top to finish, in front of his door.
A picture frame. The whole afterparty, everyone looking like they'd just struck gold, the cup in the middle of it all.
Everyone had signed it. Everyone except for--
"Merry Christmas, Hiruma-kun."
"What are you doing here, fucking manager," Hiruma growled, unlocking the door to his room and setting the present down on his bed.
"You deserved it more than anyone," she told him a bit distantly, following him into the room much to his chagrin. "You worked so hard."
"So did everyone else."
"You know what I mean."
"Che."
"I was going to bring you a Christmas Cake, but I know how you hate sweets, so--"
He cut her off, staring gruffly at his doorway, arms crossed.
"What the fuck is this, manager?"
Mamori smiled so fondly for a moment that his expression changed, blinking at her.
"It's your Christmas present, Hiruma-kun," she said, just before leaning up to kiss him softly on the mouth before flushing brightly and disappearing down the hallway again, leaving him behind with a downright dumbfounded expression on his face and closing the door behind her.
He didn't so much as touch the sprig of mistletoe to take it down, instead moving to hang up the Christmas Bowl picture, a small smile playing on his lips.
It was the first time that, Hiruma Youichi, age seventeen, had truly felt any semblance of seasonal joy in his heart.
Rating: G
Characters: Hiruma-centric, with a short Hiruma/Mamori cameo at the end.
Word Count: 1,111
Warnings: Christmas Bowl spoilers. DON'T READ IT YET, JESS!
Summary: Christmas cakes. Poker. A few memories, Yuuya, six Christmases, a lack of color, a picture with a dozen signatures, and a sprig of mistletoe.
Disclaimer: The characters herein belongs to Riichiro Inagaki, Yusuke Murata, and Shueisha and are used because I am addicted to Riichiro Inagaki's Eyeshield 21 universe and characters. No one is profiting from anything written in this story. I am not Riichiro Inagaki, and I am not Yusuke Murata.
Author's Notes: I don't know. It just sort of attacked my head. Besides, I had to write *something* Christmassy.
The first Christmas Hiruma Youichi could remember consisted of a distinctive lack of color.
Just in his home, however. The surrounding homes-- everything looked so festive and merry, and Youichi wondered whether he was cursed to live a drab life without garlands ands colors and trees and lights and decorations.
It seemed unfair to the little boy, four years old at the time, that all of the other kids-- who called him weird-- got all the seasonal cheer in the world, when all he got was silence.
No lights, no sounds, no cheer. Not even the faintest hint of merriment and music-- what was a boy like him to think?
One day he heard it-- only good kids get presents and fun over Christmas time. Didn't you know that? The others all get coal as a punishment.
It was the first time Youichi realized that it had to be true.
He was a bad kid, and he was never going to have a good Christmas, and this was simply the way his life was going to be.
Bad kids get coal.
When, that year, on Christmas Eve, Youichi got no gifts at all, he realized that maybe the other kids had been right all along.
Maybe he was a bad kid.
Maybe he'd finally found a reason for why his parents didn't love him.
~*~
Hiruma Youichi, age seven.
It was then that he learned to hate Christmas time.
While other people were having fun, he was in his room, staring out the window at the snow-decked surroundings.
No one cared about the lonely little boy who wished he could play, too. Who just for once wanted someone to not make fun of his teeth or his ears or how skinny and lame he was. Wanted his parents to at least pretend that they cared.
Instead, all Youichi remembered about Christmas that year was that, on the morning of the 25th of December, when other families were eating their Christmas cakes together, mom wasn't there anymore, and his father muttered something unintelligible that he knew he wasn't supposed to ask about.
She didn't come back ever again, and Youichi wondered whether this was the literal version of getting coal in one's stocking.
~*~
Father-- the man he'd now come to call simply Yuuya-- never bought Christmas cakes again after that, and Youichi realized that he missed them. He didn't think he would-- sweets had never been his favorite, but...
It had been a bit of holiday cheer that even he'd gotten.
Up 'till now.
It was then, at age 9, that Youichi learned to hate sweet things, resenting them and the cheer they brought everyone else a little bit more every time he looked out the window at the lights.
Christmas cakes that weren't sold by Christmas morning were considered old and out of date by everyone. Yuuya had explained the previous year that unmarried women over the age of twenty-five were said to be "unsold Christmas cakes."
There was a certain amount of guilt that stung in his chest every time he walked by a Christmas cake shop, as if he was solely responsible for another unsold woman by not buying a cake.
Even if he was starting to be convinced that no woman could ever want him. He just wasn't the sort of person that anyone could want. Not a mother, not a father, no friends, and definitely no girls.
~*~
Youichi remembered as much about his 10th Christmas as the American soldiers at the air base. He wanted to forget the Holiday so much as existed as much as they did.
They couldn't be with their families, and Youichi didn't have a family to be with.
And as much as December 24th didn't stand out to him as a special day at all that year, he had fun. Even if it was just playing poker and shelling in cash. Because in the end, even if he hadn't realized it, he was doing good-- making them forget they had people back home to miss.
~*~
The next few Christmases passed in much the same way, the only thing standing out about the holiday season being that precious hole in the fence and the American Christmas music he heard every time he came around, everything outside covered in white.
He didn't mind.
~*~
When he turned fifteen, suddenly Christmas found a positive connotation for him.
Not only had he found friends, but they were all working towards the same goal, together. The holiday didn't matter anymore.
All that mattered now was the Christmas Bowl.
It was that year that he'd gotten sick of bicycling by that damn Christmas Cake Shop every time he rode home after school, and chose to take up house in the hotel on a permanent basis.
~*~
It wasn't until they won the Christmas Bowl that Youichi truly felt like he'd gotten a gift over the holiday he hated so much and had always wanted nothing more than to forget.
It was the same year that he found a small parcel, wrapped neatly in the same way only one person he knew was capable of, blue, shiny wrapping paper with a pretty silver bow on top to finish, in front of his door.
A picture frame. The whole afterparty, everyone looking like they'd just struck gold, the cup in the middle of it all.
Everyone had signed it. Everyone except for--
"Merry Christmas, Hiruma-kun."
"What are you doing here, fucking manager," Hiruma growled, unlocking the door to his room and setting the present down on his bed.
"You deserved it more than anyone," she told him a bit distantly, following him into the room much to his chagrin. "You worked so hard."
"So did everyone else."
"You know what I mean."
"Che."
"I was going to bring you a Christmas Cake, but I know how you hate sweets, so--"
He cut her off, staring gruffly at his doorway, arms crossed.
"What the fuck is this, manager?"
Mamori smiled so fondly for a moment that his expression changed, blinking at her.
"It's your Christmas present, Hiruma-kun," she said, just before leaning up to kiss him softly on the mouth before flushing brightly and disappearing down the hallway again, leaving him behind with a downright dumbfounded expression on his face and closing the door behind her.
He didn't so much as touch the sprig of mistletoe to take it down, instead moving to hang up the Christmas Bowl picture, a small smile playing on his lips.
It was the first time that, Hiruma Youichi, age seventeen, had truly felt any semblance of seasonal joy in his heart.